Interior (Architecture) and design

Tag Archives: architecture

Iran is a complicated country, The Islamic revolution, departure of the Shah, Ayattolah Khomeini taking his place and now Ayattolah Khamenei being on the “throne” since 1989, the nuclear projects, the sanctions and recently the agreement on the nuclear activities. It is a country that stays in the headline. The people try to move forward but in a country where all of this is going on, it isn’t very simple I think. That’s why I am pleased every time I read something positive about Iran and today I read an article on Architizer about Iran’s modern Architecture with the suiting title “The architectural treasures of Iran”and I want to share it with you guys.

This 9×3 house that includes a bedroom, a combined kitchen/ living room and a bathroom, asks a manufacturing period of 4 to 6 weeks and just one day to assemble. Casa transportable APH80 by Abaton. The dimensions are chosen such a way, to provide a comfortable space for two people and also to be able to transport the house on the back of a truck.

You might ask , why spending money on this house for which you need a truck to move it around , when you can buy a classic mobile home/vehicle?

Well if you ask me, the difference between these two is, that you actually can feel home on a particular spot with this micro architectural element , while in a mobile home you might still feel the temporality of your stay? Or for a longer stay? Or maybe for someone who moves a lot due to a certain career? But then of course, I never lived in a mobile-home, this is just a subjective, inexperienced opinion of me.

Price : from 21.900 €

This little house intrigued me and I wanted to share it with you, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Interior Architecture is a vague term in some people’s ears and this is because of the fact that it is a very wide subject matter.

Interior Architecture is NOT interior design NOR architecture but a FUSION of these two fields. As an Interior Architect we have the responsibility to create spaces. A space where the user is able to reflect him self. A functional and fair space where our movement and functions will depend on.

Let there be Light

A big part of the interior architecture depends on the lighting. After a research that I did during my bachelor period in the academy, I found out that we humans, we seek light. Light brings us security. As an interior architects, we are always trying to use the natural lighting as the main source of light in a space. This can be difficult in some cases of course and that is when we switch to interior design.

As an interior architect our task does not stop at creating a space, we also have to make it functional for a specific use. That is when we make use of our knowledge inside the field of Interior Design which means choosing the elements that “fill” the space. These elements can be functional in order to be placed wisely.

Space Planning

Space planning is an other important branch within the field of Interior architecture. It goes in two levels. we can say that it has a macro and a micro level.

The macro level is when we work on our plans and decide how we are going to divide our surface on an architectural level.

The macro level is when we start to place the lose elements, like the additional lighting and the furniture etc, into our macro space planning.

I can go on and on about what Interior Architecture is and what we do, but What I can illustrate in one sentence is what we are not.

What we hate to hear as an interior architect:

“Oh I hear you are an interior architect, can you help me with my apartment? I need to choose the colors of my walls , and which chair should I buy? “

I do have the right eye to be able to help with these matters, but my problem is the global image of being an interior architect which is often wrong and it needs to change.

Interior architecture is a beautiful metier. It means creation, movement, beauty and art. There are days when we have to work until late, it sure is a stressful job, we do get tired and curse at our selves “WHY THE HELL DID I BECOME AN INTERIOR ARCHITECT?” but at the end when we see the results of our creation, we certainly are proud and we know that it was all worth it.

This is what this blog is all about. The fusion between interior design, interior architecture and architecture.

Neg x

This is a picture of one of the projects that I had the chance to be a part of it’s creation and design along with Alternativ.

It is been a while since my last post… I didn’t have the greatest week(end) and the drama it is not finished yet.

One of the things that I do the most when I feel down, is looking at pictures, pictures from the past and after a while I close my eyes and try to sleep to keep those thoughts and change them into dreams. This way I can be close to some people and places.

I am not going to talk too much today just because sometimes we get so tired that words can’t express the feeling and I don’t want to make you guys depressed neither :)!

So to cheer my self and you guys up. I made my top 10 of the most beautiful places on earth ( in my opinion of course) that are on my bucket list because of their amazing architecture made by of human or nature.

Gordon Matta Clark was an American artist who studied Architecture but didn’t practice it. He referred to his work as “Anarchitecture”. Gordon Clark got famous for his “building cuts”. He made controlled demolitions in abandoned buildings which gave an other dimension to their architecture. He didn’t create by constructing,by putting brick on bricks… but by demolitions,revealing and subtracting… That is why he called his work “Anarchitecture”.

Undoing a Building

Paris Biennale 1975

Paris Biennale 1975

Circus or The Caribbean Orange” 1978

The HUBflat, a work of CH+QS arquitectos situated in Madrid,Spain can be seen as a modern resurrection of his work.

The HUBflat which is originally a co working space began to have a large success as an event space. The question was then, how to combine these two functions without losing the look and feel of the space? By adding stuff? Touching without touching? What does it mean? Subtracting? Removing? Yes ! The creation of a new environment by removing.

They came up with a controlled demolition and for that they used a huge cone and two spheres and subtract those volumes from the existing walls , ceiling and the floor.

what I really like about this project is the unexpected. The element of surprise.

Interior Architecture is not only adding walls and volumes… sometimes we have to think outside the box and see what can be done without constructing? Using the existing elements and the beauty of them.

My opinion is that we assign a style to a work a little too soon. We should first understand where this styles come from to be able to identify our selves with them.

What does Scandinavian design mean? Light, fresh and a pure interior with a lot of light and use of natural materials. Scandinavian design started in the 50’s. That makes this movement a post WII style. The main thought behind Scandinavian design is to create an environment which is functional, simple and minimal. The use of natural materials such as wood originate from the ideology of low-cost/affordable design.The idea was to create a home where everybody can get used too and can pay for,realizing this ideology by using low-cost and mass produced materials.

Minimal? What does that mean? A white box with a chair inside it? Could be… But every interior has a meaning. Why is that chair placed there? Should everything be white to be minimal? I disagree. Minimalism is a very spiritual movement in my opinion.It started in the 60’s by visual arts and music. It was introduced into architecture later on. The main Characteristic of minimalist movement is the pureness of it. You only see what you need to see to understand and be able to live. Other styles have visual characteristics such as specific use of materials and colors. But Minimalism does not and in my opinion, that is exactly why it cannot be defined with a red line.

This project is situated in Spain and realized by Cifuentes Olivier Arquitectes. I saw the chance in this project to talk about this subjects and stay in the concrete mood at the same time (last post). As you can see, this isn’t the image that you would imagine by hearing the word Minimal. But it is.

The goal of this project is to join 2 separated locals and use the space as an archive.

The architects of this project tried to reduce the budget by eliminating the unnecessary elements. They used the actual characteristics of the building to provide an atmosphere. By cracking the concrete wall open, we can feel the roughness of the building but at the same time, by revealing the traces of the ancient wall covering, the glue, the tubes and the “imperfections” of the architecture, we feel the fragility of the building. These are the elements that most of the architects try to hide behind a smooth wall…

Floor Plan

They also eliminated the use of artificial air conditioning, simply because of the fact, that the building is located nearby the sea and they can enjoy from the sea breeze which provides a pleasant temperature.